


All Aboard

by Lying_potato



Series: Hogwarts AU [11]
Category: Snow Queen - K. M. Shea, The Fairy Tale Enchantress - K. M. Shea, Timeless Fairy Tales - K. M. Shea
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, Phile is Best Aunt, everybody loves the Hogwarts Express, just a little friendly interHouse rivalry, smol Stil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29552580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lying_potato/pseuds/Lying_potato
Summary: Phile, Angel, and Evar escort an eleven-year-old Stil to Platform 9 3/4.
Series: Hogwarts AU [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2169327
Kudos: 11





	All Aboard

**Author's Note:**

> Current Chronological Order:
> 
> Ducks  
> **All Aboard**  
> Sorting  
> Mirrors  
> News  
> Secrets  
> Fight  
> Greenhouse  
> Room Where it Happens  
> The Old Guard  
> Underground Fight Club

* * *

At least the kid’s trying to be discreet, Phile will give him that. She doesn’t doubt Stil’s look of wide-eyed wonder upon seeing Platform 9 3/4 for the first time, but she also doesn’t miss how he keeps pulling and tugging at his new robes when he thinks no one’s looking.

Well, that’s not her problem.

The platform is filled with the clamor of its occupants; owls hooting from cages, reunited students shouting out greetings at the top of their lungs while floating large trunks, and harried parents bellowing at them even louder to _get on the bloody train first_ all while a piercing whistle occasionally blasts from the front of a scarlet-red express. It’s absolute, wonderful chaos on a level Phile hasn’t seen since she came to Britain. Or since she snuck off to South America.

“Will you stop _fidgeting_?” Angelique says flatly, stopping to smooth out and straighten the wrinkles Stil had made. Oops, guess Phile should start being Responsible now. She adores Angel, she really does, but the beautiful young witch can be so _serious_ at times.

She blames Farrin for that.

“Oh leave him be, Pup,” Phile says airily. “Don’t you remember your first time being here? I certainly do. Practically squealed with excitement like a little girl.”

“Phile, you didn’t even go to Hogwarts.”

“That’s why I said _like_ , didn’t I?” Phile grins, clapping a hand on Stil’s bony shoulder. He’s finally started to lose that wary look of his, thank Merlin, all these months after Angelique had first dragged a scruffy magical orphan into Order headquarters with all the force of a lioness caring for a wayward cub. “The platform can be...well...

“A tad overwhelming?” Evariste supplies helpfully from behind the three of them, casually levitating the boy’s trunk. “Not to worry, Stil. You’ve got seven years to get used to it.”

“Did you?” Stil asks curiously.

Angelique snorts. “No. He was even worse than you. Even as a seventh year, he bounced around like—“

“Angel, I’ll thank you not to malign me in front of a student,” Evariste says affably with a blindingly charming smile before disappearing to load Stil’s luggage onto the train. Phile happily notes that Rakel’s talent in recruiting good-looking men remains as impeccable as ever; the tall, fashionable wizard easily fit in among the ranks of Handsome Halvor and Ogle-Worthy Oskar.

Of course, _Phile_ ’s curse of being the only witch around who can properly appreciate the eye candy is just as strong, judging by how Angelique looks about as affected as an apathetic cactus. 

Phile shakes her head in disappointment. _Honestly, and I thought Rakel was bad_.

“The Sorting won’t be too difficult, will it?” Stil blurts out anxiously. “Briar was going on and on about outrunning nightmare riders and swimming with the giant squid, and it’s not that I’m _scared_ -“

“And what did Isaia say?” Angelique cuts in tartly.

“He told me it’s not that bad! Which is _worse_ cause Isaia barely says anything to begin with!”

Phile quickly looks down. If she makes eye contact with Angelique, she’s going to burst out laughing and that’s going to be of no help to anyone.

“Well, I reckon if Isaia didn’t feel the need to warn you, it can’t be that bad,” she says, absurdly proud that her voice doesn’t quaver with suppressed laughter. “You know he’s a Hufflepuff, which means he’s got a loyal, soft streak to him.”

“Why Phile, are you implying that _all_ Hufflepuffs are softhearted?” drawls Evariste, back from the train. Right, that was his House, wasn’t it?

Angelique grins. “Is Phile wrong though, Mr. Hufflepuff? Remind me again which one of us is going to spend months locked up in a castle teaching snot-nosed brats the proper way to not blow things up, and which one of us is going to be the one locking people up for blowing things up anyway?”

“And remind _me_ again, Ms. Gryffindor, what House the Head Auror, your own mentor, was in?”

“If you two are finished flirting,” interrupts Phile gleefully, “I believe your son has a train to catch.”

She turns to Stil while the other two are stammering. “Farrin’s from Hufflepuff, if it wasn’t obvious. Nothing says a soft heart can’t also be incredibly protective. I never did understand all that fuss that you Hogwartians have about Sorting anyway. Anything else?”

Stil goes quiet, thinking hard. “Does it matter?”

“Does what matter?”

“That I’m...you know.” The kid shifts his feet, clearly embarrassed. “A Muggle-raised orphan. Poorer than dirt.”

Phile softens. “Stil-“

“It won’t matter.” Angelique says, firm as steel. “It didn’t for me.”

And while Stil delightedly takes that knowledge in like a puppy presented with a new chew toy, Evariste checks his gold-swirled watch and winces.

“I better get going,” he says. “Wouldn’t want to be late for the Welcome Feast.”

The boy promptly looks crushed. “You’re...you’re not coming with me?”

“Not on the train, no. I’ll be Apparating straight there.” Evariste ruffles Stil’s hair affectionately. “And once you start making friends on the train, you’ll be glad not to have a stuffy old professor like me hanging around.”

“But Evariste-“

“That’s _Professor_ Evariste to you now, Stil,” Angelique says sternly in what Phile privately thinks of as the ‘Auror voice’.

_Pup’s like a mini-Farrin already_ , she thinks with no small amount of amusement.

Stil, obviously not as entertained, makes a face. “ _Professor_ , what if I’m so bad at magic that I fail your class and get expelled?”

“It’s impossible to fail your first year,” says Angelique, a funny look on her face. “Trust me on that.”

“You’re a bright one, Rumpelstiltskin,” Evariste adds in a serious tone. “You’ll be just fine.”

The shrill sound of the train whistle is a sharp reminder of how rapidly the platform is emptying, so the three of them promptly shoo him onto the train. Soon enough, they see Stil poking his head out a nearby window alongside a bunch of other young students in his compartment, waving goodbye so enthusiastically that he nearly falls out.

Phile cups her hands to her mouth for one last shout as the train pulls away. “And not to worry; if you get expelled, your Aunt Phile will just teach you how to blow things up herself!”

“Phile!”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh poor Stil...don't worry, you won't have to outrun any nightmare riders in this AU. 
> 
> Leave a Kudos if you liked it :)


End file.
